The Burning Tree
by Alashay13
Summary: Alexa Daniels lived a peaceful life in Amity. She had the perfect Amity family, the perfect Amity boyfriend, and the perfect Amity life. Everything about her was perfectly Amity. Except her.
1. Choosing Day

The idea that a 16 year old could make a life changing choice with ease and no regrets, only shows just how flawed the society she lived in was. To make a choice, go through with it, and be stuck with it for the rest of your life, is terrifying. What if she ended up not liking her decision? Or failed?

These were the questions that she was told shouldn't happen if she choose right, but come on. She 16 years old and hardly knew what she would like for breakfast much less what she want to do for the rest of her life. But Alexa had no choice but to make a choice.

Early in the morning, Alexa slipped into the yellow dress her mother had bought specifically for this day, and smoothed it down nervously. In her bedroom mirror, she could see the panic rise in her green eyes as she fidgeted with her dress.

The Choosing Ceremony was today, and almost everyone would be there. If only this was a private matter between the faction leaders and the choosers.

As quickly as she could, Alexa applied on her makeup and ran a hand through her long brown hair. Feeling as ready as she would ever be, she met her family downstairs who looked a lot better off than she did.

Her mother, Piper, and father, Jack, sat on the opposite ends of the table, with her two sisters, Aria and Bella, sitting next to each other across from her brother, Brendon, who had made sure to sit next to their mother that morning. Sitting down in the only empty chair, Alexa attempted to eat her breakfast.

"Just remember sweetheart, your mother and I will accept any decision you make," said her father in his soothing voice, squeezing her hand quickly. Her mother however made a face and ate her piece of peace serum infused bread quicker.

Brendon, gave Alexa a look that she knew all too well. Two years ago, he had gone through his own Choosing Ceremony and their mother had acted the exact same. As if it would make the blow of one of her children leaving any less painful.

Alexa often wondered if Brendon had chosen Amity because of their mother or because he wanted to. Given Brendon's often annoying habit of a book in his face, Alexa assumed it was the former.

"We better get going or else we'll be late," their mother said briskly, and left before any of them could even rise. Her siblings soon followed afterwards, giving her quick smiles before rushing out the door as well.

"Remember Alexa, the Choosing Ceremony is put in place to better sort out where we belong. Just because you are born in one faction, does not mean you do not belong to another." He gave her a smile and she shifted uncomfortably. Did he know?

"Dad-"

"Alexa, do not let any one of us influence your decision today. Do not repeat the mistakes your brother made. Be brave," he said. He held out a necklace and motioned for her to turn around. When the necklace had been clasped, Alexa looked at it. Embossed in a shiny silver circle, was the Amity symbol.

"Thank you dad," she said, and as they walked out the door, he threw his arm around her shoulders and said, "Now, lets go get you sorted. Shall we?"

The Choosing Ceremony itself was boring as it was two years ago when her older brother had walked the stage. Each of the Faction's leaders each took turns speaking beforehand, making sure to instill the "Faction before Blood" motto as many times as possible, before reading off the extremely long, backwards alphabetical list of names.

As her last name was Daniels, Alexa watched as her childhood friends and fellow classmates walked the stage and chose the Faction that they believed to belong in.

"Winchester, Carter," called the Dauntless leader, Max Hawkins. Alexa sat up stiffer in her seat, and could feel her mother do the same. From a few rows down a tall, lean boy stood up. He made his way out of his row and looked back quickly, his eyes meeting Alexa's briefly before he made his way down to the stage.

"I do hope he makes the right decision," Alexa's mother muttered beside her. Shifting uncomfortably, Alexa wondered what the right decision her mother could possibly think of. Together, they watched as Carter took the knife from a Dauntless helper.

He paused in front of the bowls that held each of the Faction's elements, and sliced the middle of his palm. Stepping forward, he thrust his hand over the Dauntless bowl, and let his blood sizzle on the black coals. Beside her, Alexa's mother gasped and grabbed her arm.

"Oh sweetie, I'm so sorry," she murmured, bringing her daughter in close. Alexa only smiled weakly and waited for her name to be called. On and on the names were called until finally, her named was called.

"Alexa Daniels," called Max. Her mother gave her arm a quick squeeze, her father a warm smile, and her siblings a nervous look. A little unsteadily, Alexa made her way to the platform, and took the knife from the Dauntless helper.

Be brave, her father had told her. But how? Max gave her a nod, and Alexa stopped in front of the five bowls that represented each faction. In them, was the burning coals for Dauntless, plain stones for Abnegation, clear water for Erudite, an earthly smelling soil for Amity, and shards of glass for Candor.

Alexa sliced her palm and glanced at the Amity bowl and then to Dauntless'. Be brave. She held her hand out over the burning coals, and in the dead quiet of The Hub, the sizzling sound of her blood hitting the coals could be heard clearly.

"Dauntless," boomed Max, giving Alexa a quick smile. Polite applause and whoops erupted as she made her way to the Dauntless section. Chancing a look back at her family, the look of betrayal she saw on her mother's face made her close her eyes.


	2. The Roof

Author's Note: Thank you to StardustSpike and the anonymous person for your reviews as well as NikiLC, Miss J Bee and pokemonlove5 for alerting/favoriting. And thank you to anyone else who took the time to read.

The ceremony was over, and all hell seemed to break loose in the Dauntless section. A mass of black sprinkled with white, yellow, blue and grey poured out onto The Hub steps and sprinted off down the road.

"Where do you think we're going?" asked Carter, jogging alongside Alexa who shrugged. Cheers of excitement erupted from the Dauntless borns as they made their way through the factionless sector.

"They aren't going to make us run all the way to Dauntless are they?" asked a tall, and clever looking Erudite, glancing down at the other transfers with his blotchy face. They seemed to run forever when suddenly they stopped. The Erudite transfer collapsed to the ground, panting for breath.

"They're climbing!" shouted a Candor transfer and Alexa felt her eyes roll. Leave it to the Candors to blurt the obvious. One after another, the initiates scaled the rungs on the beams that held the railway.

"What's that?" questioned the Candor, as the platform beneath them began to rattle. The Dauntless borns began whooping once more and nudging each other dangerously to the edge of the platform.

"It's the train!" shouted an initiate.

"That doesn't look like it's slowing down anytime soon," said another Erudite transfer, just as the grey train whizzed past them. The Dauntless borns took off down the platform and started to run alongside the train and swinging in.

Gathering her senses, Alexa grabbed Carter's hand and followed suit. She watched as the Dauntless borns jumped up to grab the handles outside the carts, and swung in. They made it look so easy.

Alexa let go of Carter's hand and jumped up to grab the handle. Grunting with exertion, she slowly swung herself inside and collapsed on the floor, her hands burning. She rolled out the way just in time to dodge Carter's heavy body collapsing right next to her.

"I can't believe we did it," Carter said, taking her hand as they rested on the floor. Unable to form a sentence, Alexa just shook her head and looked at her fellow transfer initiates. She didn't notice the Erudite transfer who had been right by her. With a sobering thought, she realized that they were now factionless.

"Amity? I think _you_ people are a little lost," said a snooty voice from the Dauntless-born group. "Y'know, couples don't make it through initiation together." The group of Dauntless-borns parted and a purple haired girl with bits of metal decorating her face stepped forward from the group and towered over Alexa and Carter.

Glancing upwards at the source of the voice, Alexa's eyes fell upon the tall Dauntless-born who looked down at Alexa with a look of disdain.

"Well, it looks like we'll be the first then," Carter said cooly, barely giving the girl a look. The girl scoffed and swaggered back to her friends.

"Be nice Zoe," said another Dauntless-born, who didn't even look up from his shoes that he picked at with a knife. The Dauntless-born, Zoe, rolled her eyes but turned to her friends and engaged them in a quiet conversation that consisted of the occasional, withering glances at Alexa, Carter, and the growing pile of transfers.

"Dauntless, welcoming as ever," said one of the Erudite transfers, whose blue slacks were covered in dirt and ripped at the knees. Alexa chuckled and together, she and Carter stood up from the train floor.

"I'm Kendra," a redheaded Candor girl said, reaching out a pale hand towards Alexa and Carter.

"I'm Alexa, and this is Carter," said Alexa, shaking Kendra's hand. Over by the train doors, two tall Erudite boys stood, looking out.

"Stephan?" shouted the taller of the two. A faint shout could be heard, and then nothing as the train took them all further away. One transfer was now factionless. Alexa shivered and held Carter's hand tighter. At any moment, that could be them.

"Get ready," a Dauntless-born called out. _Get ready for what?_ Alexa looked over as she watched the Dauntless-born initiates drift towards the train doors.

"What're they doing?" asked Kendra. Her question was answered quickly, as the Dauntless borns began jumping out the open train doors. Slightly alarmed, Alexa pushed past the transfer initiates and saw that the Dauntless borns had jumped from the fast-moving train to a rooftop. _They're crazy_ , she thought.

But she too, after giving Carter a look, backed up from the train doors, and with a running start, she too jumped from the train. For a brief, terrifying second, she sailed through the sky, arms out front. And then, she crashed and slid on the gravelly rooftop. She wiped her skinned palms on her yellow dress, leaving a small streak of blood on each side of her. Beside her, Carter was no worse with a torn hole in his jeans and shirt.

"They're crazy," was all he said, and together they joined the growing group of initiates. Standing precariously before them on a ledge, stood two men dressed alike in all black Dauntless uniforms. The first was a tall, distinguished looking man.

Alexa quickly recognized him as Max Hawkins, one of the Dauntless leaders, and the same one who had hosted the Choosing Ceremony. He stood with his arms clasped behind his back as he surveyed the group of initiates before him.

Standing beside him, was another leader. He glanced boredly around at the initiates, his double eyebrow studs glinting in the sunlight. Upon closer inspection, Alexa noticed that both men shared the same bolded line tattoos. While Max's was on his forearms, the other one had his on his neck. Alexa shivered at the thought of a tattoo needle going anywhere near her neck.

Behind her, she heard a yell, followed by a scream. A group of Candor transfers panicked near the edge of the building, one of them even collapsing on the ground of the roof as they peered over it. Alexa looked at each of the Candor transfers and realized with a sinking feeling that Kendra was not amongst them.

"Gather round," said the younger of the two on the ledge, not even bothering to raise his voice over the Candors. But why should he? For as soon as he spoke, a sudden hush settled over the initiates.

"I'm Eric. I'm one of the leaders," he began. Alexa looked at Carter with a raised brow. He seemed so young to be a leader. "The way to Dauntless is down there. Who here is brave enough to go first?"

The initiates looked at each other uneasily. Jumping on and off a moving train was one thing. But jumping off a ledge of a building….

"What's down there?" asked a red-faced Candor born. Eric and Max only glanced at each other and shrugged.

"You wanna find out?" asked Eric. The Candor born's rosy cheeks became redder as he hesitantly took a step back. From the back of the group, someone scoffed and began pushing past the other initiates.

"If no one goes, I'll start pitching you over the edge," drawled Eric, his blue eyes landing on Alexa, as she felt herself move forward. She could hear Carter hissing at her, but she paid him no attention as she gave Eric her undivided attention.

"I will," she felt herself saying, despite the overwhelming panic rising inside of her. Eric took in her appearance, her skinned knees, and dirty dress and let out a contained chuckle.

"Are you guys going to let a pansycake show you up?" he questioned the Dauntless borns, not letting his eyes linger from Alexa's.

"Am I really a pansycake if I'm willing to go first?" the words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. The initiates and even Max stood frozen. Eric narrowed his eyes but said nothing. He didn't need to, his eyes said it all.

There was awkward shuffling behind her, and when she had almost lost her nerve, she stumbled forward once more and approached the ledge that Max and Eric were standing on. As she climbed it, they jumped off and turned to look at her.

For a moment, she peered down below at the hole in the ground several stories below her. She felt the eyes of the initiates and leaders on her back. And then, she jumped.


	3. Dauntless

Author's Note: Thank you to BriellaTauri, Stestiel, TillyRosie, XxEerierPiexX, kAsS3695, and maraudersanarchy for alerting. Probably won't be able to post up another chapter for a week or two unless I can manage it on the app.

Her back met something hard that absorbed the fall. She was crazy. Jumping off a roof right after jumping onto it. Crazy... To her right, someone dipped the net that had caught her, and she rolled right into the arms of an attractive, young man.

"Amity? Are you lost?" he asked, his blue eyes were lit with mirth as he took in her shocked state. Blankly, she felt herself shake her head. The fall seemed to have effectively shut her up. "What's your name?" he asked. Alexa only stared at him confused. The man rolled his eyes.

"Did you hit your head on the way down? If you can't remember it, think of a new one," he said impatiently. A new name? A new start...

"Lexa," she said quietly.

"First jumper, Lexa," shouted Four to the cheering Dauntless crowd. He gestured for her to wait over to the side, as someone from above came falling down with a high pitched squeak.

One after another, body after body fell from the ceiling until only the leaders (who jumped silently) were left. The man who had called their names out, came to the large group accompanied by one of the leaders and an edgy looking woman.

"Initiates, welcome to Dauntless," began the man who had greeted them at the net _._ "My name is Four. This here is Lauren, and you've already met Eric."

 _'Four? What kind of name was Four?'_ thought Lexa. She could tell that her fellow initiates were thinking the same, but no one was brave enough to mention it. Satisfied that no one seemed to question him, Four continued.

"Dauntless borns, you'll go with Lauren. She'll be your main instructor. Transfers, you're with me," said Four, who began leading them down a narrow path. Lexa watched as the Dauntless borns left, taking a small chunk of the group with her.

Four took them around the compound, pointing out various hot spots such as The Pit. Throughout the whole tour, Lexa couldn't help but notice how silent Eric, the young leader, was. She found it slightly unnerving how he seemed to watch them, never adding anything useful to Four's rather insightful tour. At the end of the tour, Four and Eric gathered them all at the end of a dark hallway.

"Beyond this door will be your sleeping area. Boys _and_ girls," he added to many of the initiate's horror.

"Just wait till you see the bathroom," he said with a smirk before opening the metal door. The initiate's room was large, but not large enough. Beds stacked upon each other with a thin mattress and blanket. Lexa saw Carter smirk at her and mouth, _"Together?"_. She rolled her eyes and turned back to Four and Eric who led them to the bathroom.

Horror and shock jolted through her at the state of the shower stalls. If you could call them stalls. Thin partitions separated each shower head but that was it. No curtain and certainly no privacy. But that was nothing compared to the row of toilets lined up against the wall with nothing else but the toilet.

She tuned out the whoops and pushed her way out back into the sleeping area where Four and Eric stood by the door.

"Tomorrow, you'll start your training. We start at six and break for lunch at 12 and start back up again till 5 for dinner. After that, you're free till 10. No one and I repeat, _no one_ is allowed outside of this room after 10." said Four, giving them each a look.

"Same goes for outside of this compound. Only members of Dauntless are allowed out. If you're caught without permission or without Eric or me, the consequences will be severe. Change out of your clothes and head to dinner," he said. And with that, Four and Eric left the initiates.

The following minutes were a battle of the beds as each initiate fought to claim one for themselves. It wasn't until she and Carter had joined together on one of the bottom bunks that she realized that there were one too many initiates. Even doubling up, ten initiates were left bed less.

"Y'all are crazy if you thinking _I'm_ sleeping on the ground," grumbled a chunky Candor with a sharp bob.

"Should've been quicker _fatty_ ," sneered an Erudite who had been lucky enough to have a top bunk all to themselves. Lexa rolled her eyes as the two went back and forth, and turned to Carter.

"Guess we're bunk buddies," she chirped and sat cross-legged at the end of the bed. Carter only wiggled his eyebrows and laid his head in her lap. Two candors next to them giggled at Lexa and Carter.

"How long have you been together?" asked one of them. Lexa remembered that she was the one who had had her plaited hair almost ripped from her scalp in the war to claim a bed.

"Almost two years now," said Carter sleepily, his brown eyes closed. The two candor girls awed and launched a loud conversation with Lexa who could barely keep up with them.

Having grown tired of their blunt ways, Lexa nudged Carter and the two got up to go change and head to dinner. On the way to the mess hall, the two locked hands and took in their dark surroundings.

"Remember the plan," Carter said. Lexa nodded and the two took their seats next to Four for dinner. If there was anything to say about the Dauntless, was that they couldn't sit still. Even to eat their large meals.

Shouts of laughter and battle cries echoed in the cavernous room. Lexa watched how the Dauntless members and Dauntless initiated freely talked amongst themselves, shouting and laughing. She turned back to her fellow transfer initiates and watched as they talked quietly amongst themselves.

"Not my fault Candors don't know when to keep their mouths shut," said an Erudite transfer matter-of-factly. "This isn't Candor. You can't just expect to talk your way into getting a bed. We're in Dauntless now. You fight for it."

"Doesn't mean you have to be rude about it," said the chunky Candor from earlier. The Erudite scoffed and turned back to his fellow companions.

"Don't worry about Jacob, he's just mad that no one wants to share a bed with him," said one of the girl Erudites, smirking at Jacob who scowled back at her.

"I'm Lily," said the Erudite girl. "This here is Martha, Edward, and Viktor." she pointed out Jacob's companions to the group.

"I'm Sarah, and this is Zac and Nate," the Candor initiate said. Around the table, each of the other initiates said their names.

"What do you think they're going to have us do? It can't be too easy. My dad says that he helped create a part of the initiation," said Viktor proudly. Lexa could almost picture him puffing out his chest as he bragged to the initiates how smart his father was.

"You'd do best to forget him," said Four who had remained silent until now. "You're in Dauntless now. Remember that." And with that, he turned back to his food.

"Unless you'd rather go back," said a low voice behind the transfers. Behind them, Eric stood at ease amongst the chaos around them. Viktor blushed and looked down at his plate. Eric stood next to Four and looked at the initiates.

"Max wants to see you," said Eric to Four, not even bothering to look down at Four. Four pushed his plate away and stood up.

"Tell him I said no," was all Four said and walked away from the table. Eric nodded, looking satisfied before he too left the transfers. Around them, the Dauntless members began to slam their cups on the tables in unison as Max stood over them on a balcony. An uncharacteristic hush fell over the Dauntless as the leaders stood before them in a row.

"Tonight, we are joined by a new group of initiates. Who has bravely taken it upon themselves to show everyone what Dauntless is all about," began Max. "From this night forward, they will prove themselves worthy of being called Dauntless. Because in Dauntless, we believe that **_cowardice_** is to blame for the world's injustices. We believe that **_peace_** is hard-won, that sometimes it is **_necessary_** to fight for peace. We believe that **_justice_** is more important than peace."

Together, everyone in the room began chanting along,

 ** _"We believe in freedom from fear, in denying fear the power to influence our decisions._**

 ** _We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another._**

 ** _We believe in acknowledging fear and the extent to which it rules us._**

 ** _We believe in facing that fear no matter what the cost to our comfort, our happiness, or even our sanity._**

 ** _We believe in shouting for those who can only whisper, in defending those who cannot defend themselves._**

 ** _We believe, not just in bold words but in bold deeds to match them._**

 ** _We believe that pain and death are better than cowardice and inaction because we believe in action._**

 ** _We do not believe in living comfortable lives._**

 ** _We do not believe that silence is useful._**

 ** _We do not believe in good manners._**

 ** _We do not believe in empty heads, empty mouths, or empty hands._**

 ** _We do not believe that learning to master violence encourages unnecessary violence._**

 ** _We do not believe that we should be allowed to stand idly by._**

 ** _We do not believe that any other virtue is more important than bravery."_**


	4. Stage 1

Author's note: A huge thank you to TheBookFairyXx and BloodyGrim for alerting, as well as BlueFan95 for favoriting. This is just setting up for the other chapters to come. I already have around 37 chapters planned out. Leave a review and tell me what you think so far.

"Alright listen up," said Four, first thing in the morning. "There are over 40 transfer initiates and 20 Dauntless borns." Lexa looked around the darkened sleeping room at her fellow transfer initiates in surprise. She knew that there was a considerable amount, but _over_ 40…

"Which means we're doing initiation different this year. Eric and I are going to run you through basics of the first and second stages of initiation. From there, you will be divided into groups of four-"

"Wait why four? Is it because of your name?" asked Sarah, the chunky Candor from last night. From the door, Lexa could just barely see Four narrow his eyes as he suddenly began stalking towards Sarah.

"Listen up _initiate_ , I've had enough of you. You speak _only_ when spoken to. Was I speaking to you?" he asked, towering over Sarah's trembling form. Sarah shook her head from side to side and unnecessary amount of times, her sleepy eyes now wide with fear.

Satisfied, Four slowly turned his back to her and addressed the rest of the room.

"Each group is assigned a Dauntless member who will take them through both Stages 1 and 2. Together, you will all be ranked, even against the Dauntless borns. The rankings determine the jobs available to you once you pass initiation. Any questions?" he asked, turning back to Sarah expectantly.

When no one spoke up, Four and Eric walked out the door, not before telling them they had five minutes to meet in the training center. Body crashed into body as verbal fights turned into hair pulling as the initiates fought to get the best training clothes.

Meanwhile, Lexa and Carter snuck off to the bathrooms with their clothes.

"Good thing you woke up early this morning," said Lexa as she changed out of her nightwear. Together, she and Carter once more snuck out of the initiate's room and begun the long trek to the training pit.

"What do you think they'll have us do?" asked Carter, his voice echoing slightly in the empty halls. Lexa shrugged. What could they have them do? They've already proved the could jump on and off a train.

"Probably have us work on our death glares and figure out which one of us will last hanging off the chasm," she said. Behind them, a high pitched laughter echoed loudly off the walls.

"Oh you are _so_ funny," said Sarah from behind them with a wide smile, skipping to catch up with the two. "Although I think they might have us get tons of piercings. Did you see the woman from last night? I don't think she has any more skin to pierce."

They couldn't have been any wrong. From running laps around the compound to weird exercises that Lexa had never even heard of, she began to wonder if their trainers weren't secretly trying to kill them off.

They were only halfway through what Four had called the basics to Stage 1 when two initiates collapsed from exhaustion. The sun, which had been absent for most of their training had begun to peek out, giving enough light to make Lexa wish Dauntless wasn't so dark.

"What is this?" asked Eric, speaking for the first time that day as he looked at the two pitiful initiates on the ground.

"W-we're tired sir," said one of the former Abnegation transfers bravely, looking up just a little to look at the irate leader. Eric scoffed, and Lexa had a bad feeling as she saw what looked like a smile grace his face.

"Tired?" he asked, looking down at them with disgust. "Would you like me to carry you back to the compound? You transferred to Dauntless for a reason. Dauntless don't lay down and give up. They get back up and keep on running. What if there was a factionless rebel after you. Would you just lay down and tell them to wait while you catch your breath?"

The other transfer, an Amity transfer Lexa recognized as Beth shook her head. Eric still wasn't pleased.

"Get up," he ordered. "And get out. We don't have time to waste on people who can't even make it pas the bare minimum of Stage 1." The rest of the transfers avoided Eric's stare as he made his way back to the front of the group.

"Let's go," he ordered. The transfers aside from Beth and the Abnegation transfer begun to run. They ran a short distance around a corner of the Dauntless compound when Eric stopped.

"You're now down with the basics of Stage 1. Four will guide you through Stage 2. You'll be in your groups by tomorrow," he said and had just started to walk away when Lexa felt herself speak up.

"If we were almost done, why leave the other two back there? What was the point?" she asked, feeling the stares of every initiate on her. For a moment, Lexa wasn't sure if she would get a reply.

"It doesn't matter if it was a short distance or a long one. If they can't get back to where they need to be, then they won't survive out there on the field. Stopping for a rest or keep on running, it makes a difference between a life saved and a life killed." Eric said simply, before heading back into the compound.

"I think you really want a death wish," said Carter in a hushed voice. They had all been lead to a white room, with chairs lining up against the wall. Despite there not being enough for all of them, most of the initiates collapsed on the ground.

"There was no point to kicking them out. We were almost there," said Lexa bitterly. How long until it was she or Carter being kicked out because they weren't good enough. It wasn't like they had been training very long.

"Carter's right," said Sarah from the other side of Lexa. "You keep talking up to Eric like that and _you_ might be next." Lexa looked at Sarah in disbelief.

"Says the one who talks back to Four every chance she's got," Lexa spat out. Sarah, however, smiled serenely back at Lexa.

"I can't help it. Just something about him…" said Sarah dreamily, turning back to her Candor companions.

"She's nuts," whispered Carter. Lexa smirked and the sat together in silence as initiate after initiate was called into the room. Despite each initiate going into the room, none of them ever came back.

"Think this is where they off us?" she asked conspiratorially to Carter, who smirked.

"No, they'll probably wait until we go for another run. We're already two down, what's a couple more?" he asked. Lexa felt her smirk slip a little.

They had only started just this morning and already their numbers were dwindling. If they kept this up, there would only be a handful left. Carter was up next and Lexa was left alone to handle the Candors, whose growing excitement had escalated into them yelling back and forth between their group despite only being inches apart.

"Lexa," said Four, silencing the Candors with a look. Lexa shot up from her chair and into the small room. Carter wasn't here.

"If I were you, I wouldn't exactly talk to Eric like that," said Four quietly, settling into a chair from behind a computer.

"Just like how I shouldn't talk to you like this?" questioned Lexa, taking a seat on the dentist-like chair.

"I'm _nothing_ like Eric. Eric is-" snarled Four, cutting himself off as he glared at the wall.

"It's better to not be on his radar. There's a fine line between bravery and stupidity. And you'll keep toeing the line if you keep speaking up like that," he said finally, deciding Lexa was far better to glare at than the wall.

"I thought it's rather brave to speak your mind," said Lexa, loftily. Who was Four to tell her that she was being stupid.

"A little too brave," muttered Four, almost too quiet to hear. He had gone back to glaring at the wall.

"How can someone be too brave?" asked Lexa confused. Wasn't the whole point of Dauntless to be brave, even when you didn't feel like it.

"Isn't that what Divergent is? Being braver than the average Dauntless? You're honestly one of the stupidest Divergent I've met. Not even Carter, yes I know about you and Carter, is that stupid. Just keep your mouth shut and your head down," advised Four, getting up from his chair with a needle in his hands.

"Shouldn't I try to stand out? If I don't I'll get stuck picking up your garbage," Lexa said, momentarily sliding over the fact that she and Carter had already been found out. She couldn't imagine picking garbage while the others led their lives doing whatever it was successful Dauntless members did.

"Better to pick garbage than to be dead," said Four, holding up the needle. He explained quickly what it did and pierced her with it.

"Be Dauntless," was all Four said as Lexa felt herself drift off into the simulation.


End file.
